1. Technical Field
The present invention is directed generally to graphical user interfaces (GUIs). More specifically, the present invention is directed to a method and apparatus for automatically assigning mnemonics in a GUI.
2. Description of Related Art
A mnemonic is a feature in computer user interfaces that allows a user to directly access a control in the interfaces by pressing on a special key (usually the “alt” or “ctrl” key) and a character. The character is usually an underscored character in a text label that is associated with the control. A control is an item that can be individually selected in a window or dialog box. A mnemonic then allows a user to interact with an application program without using a pointing device (e.g., a mouse). Thus, mnemonics act as shortcuts to functions in application programs. Mnemonics are most often found in menu choices but can be used any place where a control has an associated text label.
Assigning mnemonics when developing a graphical user interface (GUI) can be quite a laborious task. For example, when doing so, a software developer has to be aware of all standard mnemonic character assignments, numerous assignment rules as well as checking for duplicate assignment of characters. Oftentimes, the scope of a set of mnemonic character assignments is limited to a particular region of the user interface. That is, a mnemonic character should be unique within a dialog box or a given level of a menu. Nonetheless, since many text labels are common to many dialog boxes in an application program, it is usually desirable to have mnemonic assignment to these common labels be as consistent as possible (i.e., to have them be the same across the different dialog boxes or menus).
Thus, what is needed is an apparatus and method of automatically assigning mnemonics based on conventions and rules as well as of automatically checking for consistency of mnemonic character assignments across different dialog boxes.